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What are you here for? What are you living for? We’re here to do something, and it starts from being able to listen to that little voice inside. ~ Nirmala Nair

Nirmala doesn’t want to live a settled down life. She continuously questions the status quo and works towards living a more authentic life.

Learn more about Green Renaissance through our Grateful Changemaker feature.*

To support Michael and Justine in their film-making journey visit Green Renaissance.

Questions for Reflection

What feelings/thoughts/questions surface for you in viewing Nirmala’s story?

How does Nirmala’s story move you?

We invite you to share your reflections below the video transcript that follows.

*We are transitioning the format of our Grateful Changemakers series in an effort to deepen the ways in which we “celebrate programs and projects that serve as beacons of gratefulness.” Our film series partnership with Green Renaissance represents one such possibility. Stay tuned for more!

Video Transcript

My children always tell me, I’m a… what is the…there’s a word for it… social… misfit! (laughing) 

You see, I am actually quite unusual in my thinking. I don’t want to just settle down to life. I mean it just sounds so boring, I could not have lived a settled down life. And my work, I think, is continuously sharing the ability to question the status quo. Not let people just sit back into that settled down life and then be comfy. No. We’ve got work to do. 

So what are you here for? What are you alive… what are you living for? You are here to do something, even just a tiny little thing, which starts from being able to listen to that little voice inside, to be able to connect with that. If you’re not able to connect with that, how are you going to be able to connect outside. Even if you’ve got wifi and satellite phone and all of that I mean that’s not connection. You are disconnected inside. 

Time has become linear. What do they call it? I have a… I have a deadline. That’s right, that’s the word. I have a deadline. Deadline. OK. It’s a line from one to there, and it’s dead. It’s a dead line. So you are following a dead line. You have a dead line. Do you ever have a living line? (laughs) No – it’s a dead line. So obviously if the whole world is following a dead line, what do you expect? You get dead living. (laughs) 

There are things that are beyond our understanding. There is an enthusiasm to discover life, and how life operates. But we don’t have that. We have already made answers. We have Mr. Google sitting there and giving us answers at the tip of a click. So we don’t really go out and engage. We don’t relate. We don’t discover.

The intelligence inside us is alive, in everybody. It’s there, for each of us to access. It’s there. So to be able to take the risk, to follow one’s heart, and make mistakes and learn from that, that is authenticity.

To allow of you who have contributed, for those of you who have shared our films, for those of you who have written out comments, this journey is just beginning. And we’ve put a Patreon link below our films, so if you would like to continue to support us, we’d love for you to donate below. Thanks so much.


Green Renaissance
Green Renaissance

Justine and Michael are a creative couple living in South Africa.  Their project, Green Renaissance, works to spread positive stories that reflect the wonder of the world. With the goal of sharing ideas and inspiring change, they produce gorgeous short films that are posted online and available for anyone, anywhere, to watch and share freely.

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